After Thirty-five Years of Storage

    About 35 years ago we took a shopping trip to Edmonton.   One of our main shopping destinations there was the Ikea store.  I don’t remember most of what we bought at the time, but I do remember two of our purchases:  a flat piece of stainless steel that could be used for a backsplash in the kitchen, and a stainless steel shelf. 

    The only reason I remember these two things was because we never did use them--instead we put  them aside, for the last 35 years.

    We just purchased a new stove.  Unlike our previous ranges which all had the upright back with all the displays, our new one, which I think is called a “slide-in” range, is completely flat across the top.  When we put the new stove in its place yesterday, and were dismayed to see that it left an extremely boring kitchen wall behind it.  Luckily, we still had that old piece of stainless steel backsplash and the shelf we had purchased in Edmonton all those many years ago. They were safely stored in the barn gathering dust.

    I took them out of their packaging and I rigged them up, then slid in our new stove into place.  What a difference it made.  All together they look pretty fancy.  

    During all those years of storage, those several times when I came across the backsplash and shelf in the barn, I was tempted to add them to our yard sale items, but fortunately never did.  Sometimes it pays to be a packrat.

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